Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs IBM Power Systems comparison

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs. IBM Power Systems

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Ser...

Ranking in Rack Servers

5th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

4.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Density Optimized Servers (2nd)

IBM Power Systems

Ranking in Rack Servers

4th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

4.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Rack Servers category, the mindshare of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is 5.1%, up from 4.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Power Systems is 8.6%, up from 8.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Rack Servers Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Power Systems	8.6%
Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers	5.1%
Other	86.3%

Rack Servers

Featured Reviews

Berthold Manz

CTO at ExperTeach GmbH

Seamless server transitions enhance IT infrastructure for AI projects and improve management capabilities

If you are integrated into the Cisco management solution, it is very easy to handle. The performance aspects of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers are very strong. The ability to move from one server to another without changing anything is excellent. We can transfer all the identity of the servers between the servers.

Read full review

Foluso Jibowo

Product Manager at Hiperdist Ltd

Has empowered enterprises with secure and cost-effective solutions

When discussing disadvantages, I do not see many areas for improvement because we have received good testimonies from every client. IBM gives customers peace of mind. One challenge, which I would not really call a challenge, is that initially people have the notion that IBM Power Systems is quite expensive. However, IBM does not lose deals based on price. This is a message we need to keep communicating to people who feel that IBM is on the high side in terms of cost. We encourage them to have a discussion with us about their total cost of ownership over three or five years. There is a notion in the market that IBM is expensive, which is false. However, once we engage and show them their return on investments and their total cost of ownership savings, they tend to embrace IBM.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"On the Cisco side, there is a benefit in terms of server management. Cisco provides UCS Manager, which is a multi-tenant site manager. We can manage multiple sites while maintaining disaster recovery, a feature not available on other platforms."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack is the use of databases, such as MySQL."

"It has centralized our server management and allows us to treat servers like a pool of resources instead of discrete devices."

"The technical support from Cisco is fine."

"The solution is scalable."

"The VIC card is the most important feature."

"The solution is reliable and easy to use."

"What I really like about the Cisco USC Server is its service profile."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers pros

"We found working with IBM Power Systems that LPM is the most valuable feature."

"Power Systems' best features are that it's reliable, stable, and easily available. It's also really scalable and can be virtualized without third-party software support."

"The technical support that clients get from IBM is excellent."

"What we like the most is the ability to upgrade the scaling of the system itself. Whenever we need extra storage, we can do that. Whenever we need extra memory, we can do that as well. It's fast and it's available."

"Power Systems is like a dream solution for every IT person because it has redundancy, and it doesn't stop. It doesn't get affected easily. I don't see any weaknesses in this solution. At the moment, we have Power8. It is stable and runs smoothly. We have a big load, and it is working very well. It can be customized based on our needs. Flash copy is helping us amazingly. We have virtualization for vDisks, which is again very helpful. We are working on this virtualization technology, and we have a team that is working on redundancy and architecture."

"The best features of the solution are its robustness and service level."

"It is a very scalable solution."

"We value the stability and technology capability of this solution the most. It is very stable, and the processor technology of IBM is very good. When you have a CIO and you are dealing with C-level every day, you can, without any doubt, support the core banking or critical applications with this solution."

More IBM Power Systems pros

Cons

"The warranty and support periods should be extended."

"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack could improve by selling storage. Cisco doesn't sell storage, which is a problem because some customers ask for storage. There are several brands in the market, such as HPE, and Dell EMC. However, Cisco doesn't have any storage. This is where the tension comes from buying this solution."

"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers can improve by providing customization features to allow us to deploy them on the cloud. For example, we need VMware to allow us to accomplish a cloud deployment."

"The only thing I would change is to provide more proactive support."

"The improvement should be done as per customer requirements."

"There is very little scalability for the cluster. If you need a higher availability, there is a user limitation. So that is the low side."

"The C-Series is not designed to be as scalable. They are designed to have enough RAM and enough CPU on their own side. If you want scalability, it's better to choose the B-Series— the Blade Servers — because those are much more scalable with Fabric Interconnect."

"Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers could improve integration with third-party solutions."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers cons

"Its management can be made easier because it is not easy to manage. They should also find a new way for migrating from an old Power Systems to a new one. The migration process is currently very complicated. It should be made easier to scale. Currently, its scalability depends on the initial sizing, whereas in Nutanix HCI, you can add whatever you need and whenever you need it."

"Everyone likes speed. Not that speed has been an issue up until now but you can never be too fast."

"If you asked me what I'd like added, I'd say that it'd be nice if they ran GPUs, however, I know that's not the direction they're going. That said, I would appreciate it if they offered GPU support."

"I would like to see IBM Power Systems integrate with all cloud types."

"Initially when sizing it, people perceive IBM Power Systems as quite expensive."

"I would like to see the scaling model improved so it's not just either tiny or huge."

"In Power6, latency was an issue, but nowadays, we are on Power8, which doesn't have any such problems. Sometimes, we have issues when we are moving to a new version, which is the case with almost every company. Some new issues or problems show up suddenly, and you do not have the time to research and find the solution. That's when we contact IBM technical support."

"IBM should be more flexible with marketing or offer marketing events themselves and invite the partners to attend. That might be far more productive."

More IBM Power Systems cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My company has an agreement with Cisco to get discounted rates. It is one of the reasons why we chose the product."

"The price of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers is approximately 20 percent more than other solutions."

"The prices of Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers are higher compared to the competition. When we try and sell against the competition, then it becomes quite difficult to sell"

"The server itself isn't costly at all, but the CPU and the RAM can be pretty expensive. You can buy a UCS for $2,000, but the RAM and CPU can cost up to $80,000. The most expensive asset is the intel processor, but it depends on how many cores you want and the technology you want to use on your CPU, like Hyper-V, etc."

"The solution could be more cost-effective."

"This solution is a little expensive."

"The pricing is expensive."

"Cisco is expensive, but we didn't look at the cost of the product. We were looking at reliability and support."

More Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers pricing and cost advice

"IBM Power is more expensive than other rack-mount servers, and you have to have a license for everything, including cores and memory."

"IBM Power Systems is very expensive."

"Why should I be charged for that use rather than a single CPU, a single socket?"

"The price of the solution could be somewhat better and this is what lowers my rating of it to a seven or eight out of ten."

"The pricing is reasonable."

"The pricing of the solution is very good because we can beat any other competitor with the pricing. Lately, they have offered good pricing for their customer."

"The price of IBM Power Systems is expensive and could improve."

"The solution's pricing is very, very high compared to other platforms."

More IBM Power Systems pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Energy/Utilities Company

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	11
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	13

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	17
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	42

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The C-series is the most valuable.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

The solution is moderately priced.

What needs improvement with Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers?

I may not be the right person to comment on advanced improvements because we are just using basic functionalities. We are getting all the functionalities which we used to get in other OEM rack serv...

What do you like most about IBM Power Systems?

IBM Power Systems provides very good performance and stability compared to other brands or processors.

What needs improvement with IBM Power Systems?

There are definitely areas for improvement, but that's not really from the technological side of things. I rarely find any people with Power skills on the market. When I get young people from unive...

What is your primary use case for IBM Power Systems?

I use IBM Power Systems for online transactional processing, and in parts, also for online analytical processing. We mainly use IBM Power Systems' IBMI, which is an operating system with an integra...

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Product Reports

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers

Download Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers product report

IBM Power Systems

Download IBM Power Systems product report

Also Known As

Unified Computing System C-Series, Cisco UCS C-Series

IBM OpenPOWER LC

Overview

UCS C-Series Rack Servers deliver unified computing in an industry-standard form factor to reduce TCO and increase agility. Each server addresses varying workload challenges through a balance of processing, memory, I/O, and internal storage resources.

Cisco

IBM Power Systems are built to crush the most advanced data applications - from the mission-critical workloads you run today to the next generation of AI.

IBM

Sample Customers

Advanced Medical Transport, Aegean Motorway, Anilana Hotels and Resorts, Artoni Transporti, BH Telecom, Bowling Green State University, City of Mississauga, Dualtec Cloud Builders, Electricity Authority of Cyprus, Grupo Industrial Saltillo (GIS), Kind en Gezin, Kuwait Petroleum Italia, Nationwide, Quest, Talbots, University of St. Gallen

Cipher

Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers vs. IBM Power Systems